I refer to the letter Doctors should quit griping and get on with job in which the writer said that being a doctor was a 'noble profession'.

True, but don't members of a noble profession need to live decently like their 'non-noble' counterparts? Don't they need to buy a house to live in, to feed and clothe their families, to save money to educate their children?

Don't they need free time with their families? Aren't doctors people too even if they are 'noble people'? As Shakespeare says (of the Jews) 'Don't they bleed too ...' when you cut them?

The writer seems to be suffering from a delusion along the lines of 'If I had to suffer when I was a young doctor, why shouldn't the present lot of young doctors suffer as well'!

Be reasonable. Times are changing. A lorry driver takes home a better pay than a young doctor in government service - and he doesn't bother to worry about being noble to his fellow men either. And those working at McDonalds earn a better overtime rate than the on-call allowances paid to housemen.

If the writer thinks that there are going to be too many doctors pretty soon, why is the government still allowing so many medical schools to open locally and why are so many medical students being sent overseas?

What is wrong with improving pay, the amount of leisure time, the working conditions etc.? We don't have to live in the Stone Age forever.

I, too, worked very, very hard with little or no rest at all in my younger days as a government doctor (no call allowances or 'time off') but I don't see why things have to be the same forever.

The European Union has strict rules on how many hours a doctor (or, for that matter, any worker is allowed to work). Why can't we make life more comfortable?